Harry Potter's Tale of Two Wizards
by Narnboy
Summary: Harry tells two stories to try to change Percy's perception of him.  Complete.
1. Chapter 1  Family Meeting

**Harry Potter's Tale of Two Wizards**

Chapter One - Family Meeting

"Percy shut it!"

The green-eyed teen whirled from the gathered group in the Leaky Cauldron and walked over to the bar. "Tom. We need a private room for a family meeting."

With the sparks flying from Harry's eyes and the strong, serious tone of his voice, Tom immediately gave them directions to a room at the end of the hall. He was concerned. He had never encountered Harry in any mood other than a shy teenager.

Harry turned to the group that was with him and glared them into obedience as he pointed down the hallway. As the entire Weasley family, including Charlie who was home on a short holiday, shuffled down the hall he turned to his friends and motioned them down the hall also.

Once in the room Harry turned to Mr Weasley. "Sir, could you please ensure our privacy? I think none of us want this conversation to be public debate." Turning back to the assembled group, he again used his glare to silence everyone while they took seats around the room. Noticing most of the angry glares were headed towards Percy instead of himself only strengthened his determination to settle this now.

Once Arthur settled into a seat next to Molly, Harry stood beside a lounge chair next to Ron's seat. "Now Percy, what is your problem?" he spat out in a deep rumble.

"None of your business, Potter! I won't have you interfering with my family anymore!" was the angry reply.

As several of Percy's brothers started shouting back angry retorts, Harry raised his voice. "SILENCE! Percy, I have never interfered with your family. I would not be saying anything right now if this was between you and your family! But you have decided that private differences of opinion between family members need to be broadcast in public and therefore made it my business to settle it. Hermione and Neville are here because you, not me you! included them in your little tirade about people hanging out with... How did you put it? Deranged, criminally violent liars." Taking a deep breath Harry started again. "Now tell me Percy, what is your problem with me?"

Standing up stiffly, the former Gryffindor prefect stated loudly, "You break the rules at every whim you have, you rant and rave about long dead wizards coming back to life to persecute you, you risk my family's lives in dangerous quests to prove your own hallucinations! You are nothing but trouble and anyone who comes near you is in constant danger of dying like that escapee from Azkaban. I will not tolerate you destroying my family anymore, and I will report your taking us all hostage to the minister directly upon my return!"

Finally sitting down into the chair he had reserved for himself, Harry said softly into the simmering room, "Ahh. So you wish a life of no risks for your family and resent me for not being a risk-free person." He settled back and stared at Percy, letting his words fill the silence.

A look of shocked happiness filled Percy's face. The words seem to describe the situation so well. He firmly sat himself back into his chair, nodding absently over how clearly that summed his views up.

The twins stared at Percy with shock of their own. They had never considered that Percy's split from the family may have occurred over Percy's protectiveness for _them_. Ginny glared at her older brother. In her mind she could not understand what kind of world Percy lived in that had no risks for the people he loved.

Percy's parents, on the other hand, stared at their son Ron's friend. A summary that quick to Percy's declaration meant one of two things, maybe both. Either the family split had worried Harry so badly that he spent large a mounts of time coming up with scenarios that would explain it, or Harry's instinctive grasp of other people's motivations was so highly developed that it beggared the imagination.

Neville split his attention around the room. While the argument that triggered this meeting seemed trivial to him, the atmosphere in the room was thick enough that he knew it was serious. He had never seen Harry lose his temper that way, even when dealing with Malfoy's constant stream of degradations, taunts and injurious pranks. The Weasley parents seemed like they were waiting patiently for Percy to see the errors of his ways, while stifling any outbursts from their children. Ron and his brothers and sister seemed to feel that Percy needed to be forced back into thinking clearly, preferably with a granite two by four. Hermione seemed to agree with them. Harry, on the other hand, appeared to be interfering _only_ because no one else was doing anything. A telling sign, after all of the hints and not-sayings that covered Harry's home life with the muggles. Neville settled back to watch his friend in action.

"So." Harry's soft word returned the attention in the room to him, leaving Percy sitting opposite from him, and outside of everyone's range of vision. "If I'm understanding you correctly Percy, you joined the Ministry because they recognized your desire to work within strict bounds of rules, to enforce the rules no matter what they were, and to prove to your family that maintaining the rules works for everybody. Does that sound right?"

Again Percy looked both shocked and pleased by Harry's declaration. He enthusiastically nodded his head in agreement.

"But Percy," Harry continued, "Did you ever consider what the rules are that you are enforcing? Did you consider why the rules were made in the first place, or who they benefit? Did you consider... Never mind. I see by your face that none of that makes sense to you."

Harry lapsed into silence as the family he longed to call his own looked on in confusion. Neville was the only one to glance at Percy and see his face fall into shock as the 'lying criminal' who seemed to understand his motiva tions the best gave up on explaining things to his family. Nev glanced at Hermione and saw the well-known expres sion on her face that said she was struggling to see where Harry's thoughts were going. Ron just sat there glaring at the table. It was hard to tell if Ron had even heard Harry's self-interrupted series of questions.

"Percy, let me try again. In your first attempt to explain yourself I noticed that all of your comments were about my influence on your family. It sounds as if you feel that your family would be more likely to listen to the Ministry, follow the rules and such, if I was not here prodding and goading them to act dangerously. Does that sound like a fair guess?"

At Percy's reluctant nod, and Ron, Fred, George and Hermione's glares at Percy, Harry seemed to come to a decision.

"Percy, is it alright with you if I tell you two stories? One will be the truth as I know it, the second will be fiction. I'm not saying it will be false, it will just be my understanding of the way things would have worked out if I had never met your family."

Neville watched as the entire room stared at Harry in shock. How would a story or two convince Percy to lay off, if not change his mind?

After another reluctant nod, (apparently Percy was as unsure of this as the rest of his family), Harry glanced at Hermione and then Ron. He then looked at Neville, holding his gaze until Neville looked into his eyes.

He then started his first story.


	2. Chapter 2  Harry's Story

Chapter Two - Harry's Story

All of you know the public details, probably better than I do. I was born at the end of July, 1980. I apparently had loving parents who doted on me hand and foot.

Don't tsk at me like that, Hermione. I only have one clear memory of them and not a person I've met has been willing to talk to me about them. That means only hearsay is all I can go by, and hearsay is a worse source of information than the Daily Prophet.

Anyways, in late October of 1981 the man calling himself Lord Voldemort got it in his head that there was a threat to his ambitions of becoming the ruler of the Wizarding world. One of his spies had heard part of a proph ecy that described the means of which his destroyer could be identified, and on Halloween night he set out to destroy anyone that matched that identity.

I have heard the partial reciting of the Prophecy that Voldemort heard, I know for a fact that I was not the only one that matched the vague description. I know of at least one other survivor of Voldemort's attacks that could have been his destroyer.

Fred, George. Put your eyes back in your head. You're embarrassing your mother.

Everyone here has heard the story. Voldemort found our house by bribing, or torturing, or maybe just asking my godfather Sirius Black for the password to get through the Fidelius Charm hiding us. Voldemort burst into my family's house, ripping the wards to shreds. He slaughtered my parents, and then tried to kill me with the Avada Kedavra curse, which backfired and killed his body instead.

Whoa. There's a thought. Percy, when you get back to the ministry, see if you can find out if they had a spy in the Death Eaters when my parents were killed. If they didn't, why does everyone _know_ that my parents were killed first, and not in the apparent explosion afterwards. Then find out why they didn't get the targets of the attack to safety before Halloween.

Anyways. I survived and was then placed in hiding so the Death Eaters couldn't find me.

Flash forward ten years.

I received my first Hogwarts letter. Yes, Percy, I said first. My muggle relatives are so bigoted against magic and anything related to it they burned the letter before I could read it. And the handful the next day, and the hundreds the next day. Apparently, the letters keep coming until the one they are addressed to personally opens one of them. I know you lot opened yours first crack you had, so don't argue that point without something backing you up. Anyways, they finally took us on a getaway to a shack on a rocky island in the edge of the sea. That's where Hagrid showed up and hand delivered my letter to me, at midnight the morning of my eleventh birthday.

Sorry, spaced out for a moment there. That's my first happy memory. My first friend brought me my first birthday cake ever, and the next day took me on my very first shopping trip to buy stuff for _me_. Hag rid even bought me my first present, Hedwig.

A month later I found myself at Kings Cross trying to find platform 9¾. It wasn't until I heard your family mention Hogwarts that I realized there would be other children heading to school at the same time, let alone from the same station. After Molly showed me how to get to the platform I wound up on the train, sitting in a compartment with Ron. Without his help explaining things to me, guiding me through his own actions, and just generally being a friend, I would never have survived. That train ride is where I also met Hermione, Neville and Malfoy.

On arrival at Hogwarts I ran into Malfoy yet again, when he decided that, as the Boy-Who-Lived, I was destined to be his friend, and told me that I would be known by the company I keep. He was referring of course to Ron, just because Ron was a Weasley. I told Malfoy off, telling him that I was intelligent enough to choose my own friends rather than let others pick them for me, and made an enemy for life.

You know the official story of what happened that year. Ron and I made friends with Hermione by accidentally trapping her in the loo with a troll. Somehow we managed to waltz through traps set by the staff to protect a valuable magical object. Neville got himself into a Full Body-Bind Curse somehow. Don't roll your eyes at me, Mr Long bottom; you know full well _I_ never did such a thing to you.

The full story would take hours to tell, but let's just leave it at the fact that without Hermione proving she could use her brains for more than research, she could apply her facts too, and Ron demonstrating his tactical wizardry and his friendship, I would never have gotten far enough to face the evil in front of the mirror.

As a reward for helping keep the object from the person that was being possessed by Voldemort I got sent to live with my relatives again. Percy, don't you roll your eyes. You weren't there. You didn't see the horrible thing; you didn't hear Professor Quirrell brag about it himself. Count your blessings and be quiet about your doubts.

That summer I met Dobby. Being raised as a muggle, I had never heard of house elves, let alone seen one before. Dobby showed up in my bedroom, bringing warnings that I shouldn't return to school. He was so intent on it he deliberately tried to sabotage my relatives' dinner party, and got me blamed for it.

Intent on helping Dobby without even knowing Dobby existed, my uncle modified my bedroom that they reluctantly let me use by adding bars to the window, seven locks on the door and a cat flap to pass me meals through. Somehow or other they forgot to strengthen the walls the window bars were in, and I was broken out by a few Weasleys in a Ford Anglia. And before you say it Percy, I never had a chance to ask for rescue, your brothers knew better than to trust a muggle to raise a wizard without any comments from me. What happens in my relatives' house doesn't get talked about by me - ANYWHERE.

You probably already know what happened next. We left to get on the train for school, and the connection got blocked. We, that's Ron and me, figured the only way to get to school on time was to borrow the Ford. Again, long story short, we made it to school, but lost the car in the Forbidden Forest, and got detentions to boot.

That was the year that I found out that I'm a Parseltongue. Not that I didn't know before, I just never knew there was a name for it. The problem with being a Parseltongue is that most wizards think of it being associated with being Slytherin, and don't bother thinking after that. No one actually realizes that it can be quite a distraction. Snakes are quite talkative, but their voices are low and soft, and half the time I can't tell without focusing on the words that they are not coming from inside my head.

That's right, Fred, I hear voices in my head. Usually warning me about hanging around you.

Anyways Percy, do you have any idea what it's like to be walking around school talking to your friends and all of a sudden hear someone talking about killing? Not a pleasant sensation, especially when your friends don't hear the voice.

And then the weird stuff started happening. Mrs Norris's cat going stiff, the blood writing on the wall, Colin Creevey getting stoned. All happening with me just around the corner. Justin Finch-Fletchley and Nearly Headless Nick. Since the staff were too busy discussing evacuating the school, which would mean sending me back to Prison Muggle, and the student body believing that I must be the Heir of Slytherin, my friends and I set out to find out the true source of the attacks.

Through brilliant research, good strategy, and just blind luck we found out several things. Hagrid was sent to Azkaban back in 1943 for similar attacks on the school. He was since cleared and hired by the Headmaster to be the Keeper of Keys for the school. The ghost named Moaning Myrtle was killed in the attacks in 1943. The bathroom she haunts is the place of her death. The attack on me during a Quidditch match was caused by Dobby trying to get me away from the school.

I know, Sir. House elves don't act like that with wizards who aren't their masters. If you want an explanation of what happened, talk to Dobby.

Through my talks with Myrtle I acquired a diary that someone had tried to flush. After several false starts and one serendipitous accident I managed to discover how it worked. It originally belonged to one T. M. Riddle. It stored his memories inside it as a muggle diary stores the written thoughts of its owner. Through it Tom showed me his version of what happened back in 1943. This gave me enough information to realize that Riddle had provided the evidence that Hagrid was behind the chamber opening.

Before I could talk to Hagrid about it, Hermione was attacked. When Ron and I went to talk to Hagrid, we found Fudge there to arrest Hagrid, and the board of governors there to remove the headmaster from his position.

Ron, being the true friend that he is, followed me into the Forbidden Forest to get the answers from the only per son left in Hogwarts that had been there fifty years before - Aragog, the Acromantula. It turned out that Hagrid had been keeping the spider in a box in his dorm, and Riddle had used Aragog as a scapegoat for the death of Myrtle.

We went back to talk to Myrtle about it, and through our own planning brought our DADA professor with us. We found the Chamber of Secrets in the third floor girls' loo and then found our way inside to stop the attacks. Unfortunately we also found ourselves on the wrong side of a wand being held by Professor Lockhart. After dealing with him, with Ron's brilliant strategy... Hey, giving the man a broken wand _was_ brilliant! I went in and found that Ginny was in there with the Riddle diary, and Riddle was draining the life-force out of my best friend's most gorgeous sister.

Really George? You show me the sister you have that's prettier than Ginny, and then I'll take you up on that trip to St Mungo's.

After saving Ginny, and defeating the protector of Slytherin's treasure, we returned and turned Lockhart over to Dumbledore. My reward was once again exile to muggle land.

I really don't know if I should say anything about my third year at Hogwarts. For me it was just another year of escaped convicts hanging around my relatives' house, murderers in the school and adults talking to me in riddles. Your brother's already told you more than I'm comfortable talking about.

Not convincing, huh? Then try being thirteen and having your only contact with your friends cut off, the adults who actually care about you hiding the newspaper and talking in hushed whispers using your name (yes, you and you), and the Minister of Magic ignoring the fact that you broke the law by using magic as a minor. Try getting stalked by a mangy cur of a dog throughout muggle London, and then having Madam Trelawney see a dog in your tealeaves and tell you you're going to die before the end of the school year. Just a hint for divination class, Ginny, sometimes a dog is just a dog.

If that wasn't bad enough, have that same minister send Dementors to your school. To the only place you feel safe. Add in that every time I get near one of those dark things they bring up one and only one memory - Hearing my father beg for mercy and my mother beg for my life before the green light envelops her.

Thanks Neville. Just don't let Malfoy know why his prank backfired so badly. You remember; the one at the Quidditch match.

Too many horrors and too many surprises for me. Let's leave it at that. Actually, one more thing from that year, Percy.

Sirius Black, the escaped convict? He's my godfather. He saw the animagus who framed him in the Daily Proph et and escaped to clear his name. That animagus was _your_ pet rat Scabbers. When you get back to the ministry double check the Animagus registrations for the rat-form, and you'll find the name Peter Pettigrew.

Relax Hermione. Percy has accused me of being a documented liar. The more facts he can look up, the more proof he has that I'm not lying.

Now we get to the over-published fourth year. Again you know the basic outline of the year. Somebody with advanced magic got my name into the Goblet of Fire and entered me into the Tri-Wizard Tournament. I survived all of the events with barely a physical scratch, only to have Cedric die during the final event. And probably the basis of your complaints about my being a liar. My proclamation that Voldemort had returned.

Did you also hear how jealous Ron was that I found a way to enter and didn't include him? Did you hear how we argued and didn't speak to each other for most of the year? And most importantly to me, did you hear how he kept me from going mental when I was forced to take a date to the Yule Ball? Wipe that grin off your face Ron. You were going mental too, trying to figure out how to ask Hermione without embarrassing yourself. That's better. Red hair and red face; that's the Ron I expect.

In particular Percy, do you remember the second task? I had to rescue the thing I would miss most, my most prized treasure, from the depths of the lake. Do you remember what that treasure was? It was your brother, my Ron. Do you really think that I would deliberately risk my treasure by leading him on dangerous quests, even if I think I've figured out how to minimize the risks so no one gets hurt, no one gets caught and no one gets blamed? Just because I'm a Gryffindor doesn't mean I'm a reckless fool who jumps in with no planning whatsoever. That's Professor Snape's description by the way. I do learn things from him, no matter what his teaching style is like for me.

No Percy, any dangerous quests that Ron goes on with me is because _he_ won't let me go do them without him. Between Ron and Hermione any mission that I feel the desperate, life-threatening _need_ to go on is as safe as pos sible because neither one of them will let me out of the Gryffindor common room without double-checking that my shoes are tied tightly and my wand is where it needs to be.

You said it yourself, and I agree... I am a lightning rod for danger. If someone feels the need to cause harm to others, to be a bully, to destroy other peoples' lives, I wind up in the centre of it. Some of the time because I can't sit by and watch people get hurt. A lot of the time because the Dark is threatened by me, and seeks to destroy me before I can destroy it. The rest of the time is just plain coincidence.

I don't know about you guys, but I need a bathroom break before I continue. Percy? I can continue, can't I? I want to tell you what would most likely have happened if I had never gotten near your family. Just remember, it's based on what evidence I can find in the records laying around, not on any Divinations, Oracles, Prophecies or Visions.


	3. Chapter 3  Ennel's Story

Chapter Three - Ennel's Story

That's better. It's hard to talk seriously when your internal organs feel like their swimming. Fred, George. If you use that idea in one of your products I want compensation. One free package of the product for every hundred you sell. Deal?

Anyways, everyone comfy? I'll begin then.

This alternate telling of what could have been the fate of the Wizarding world starts the same way as the one you are familiar with. I was born at the end of July, 1980. I apparently had loving parents who doted on me hand and foot. I wasn't the only person born at that time, and that is where our story splits.

Part of the prophecy that Voldemort heard said that the one to defeat him would be born as the seventh month dies. Another part said that he himself would choose the one that would do it. As I looked over the birth records from the time I found four children who would fit the description. I'm quite sure that Tom Riddle had the same information. In our world he chose to lead the raid on two of the families that would raise his vanquisher, and had his Death Eaters attack the other two. His choice of attacking the Potters first is what gave me this scar. His death also called off the attacks on the other three.

In the other world, Voldemort chose another family for his first attack. He sent his favourite servant, nicknamed the Devil's Potions Master, to attack the Potters in his place. The Devil's Potions Master had fallen in love with Lily Potter, and wanted her for his own. When he attacked, he had his associates drag Lily out of the house, killed my father, and then killed the babe in the crib. After setting the Dark Mark over my house, he faded into the night with his captive.

In another town, only an Apparation away, Voldemort himself broke through the wards of a different house. Want ing to demonstrate his power before his Death Eaters, and leave a message for the public at large at the same time, he used the crucio spell on the husband and wife, driving them into insanity. He then turned to the black-haired boy in the crib and did the same. He left his Dark Mark over the house and continued his rounds to the third house of the night, while his mind sought and found his favourite servant finishing up at the fourth house.

Behind him in the darkened house, a second young couple crawled from their hiding place. They had been visiting the owners of the house for the evening, and hid when the wards fell. They had been holding the owners' son while their own slept in the crib, and when they hid they took the babe in their arms with them. They rushed into the night, both to escape the horror within and to protect the child from a return trip of the Death Eaters.

The next day the Daily Prophet duly reported the deaths of the four children, along with the horrifying methods used on each one.

Voldemort, flush with success over the Prophecy of his destruction, stepped up his campaign of terror, and by Christmas he had begun personally visiting pureblood families in the middle of the night to 'convince' them to join his cause. Those who refused to join were killed outright, and their children taken to be raised as Death Eaters.

When he came to the Burrow he got more than he bargained for.

With Molly and Arthur Weasley firmly denying him the opportunity to present his case - no one can deny that your father is an excellent duellist, and your mother, while untrained, can give the emotional strength to her attacks that would make Dumbledore quiver - Voldemort made the mistake of aiming for the children.

All of the Dark Lord's arsenal of spells were based on spells classed as offensive or defensive. He was totally unprepared for Bill on a broomstick using his parents' tether spell to drag Death Eaters to the top of the trees surrounding the Burrow. Charlie began using enlargement charms on his stuffed dragons, smothering attackers. Even the two-year-old twins used accidental magic that had strange effects. Imagine garden gnomes on Pepper Up. Hinkypunks with red hair acting as decoys.

The totally non-coordinated defensive strategy of the Weasley family disorientated the entire attacking force. The Death Eaters left only one casualty behind them when they left, the Burrow itself. There wasn't even a scratch on any redheaded defender, not even on Ginny.

Homeless, the Weasleys moved into the hills and formed a nomadic refugee camp of people trying to escape the Death Eaters. Other families joined them, including a blond couple with their dark haired son Ennel.

Meanwhile, Tom Riddle took over the Wizarding world in Britain. Feeling invincible he took on Albus Dumbledore and won, leaving the leader of the Order of the Phoenix magically drained and broken. He then challenged the Minister of Magic, defeated him, and took the reins of power for himself. He then took control of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Magic and turned it into a training grounds for Death Eaters. You graduated by taking the Dark Mark, or you failed to graduate and became target practice in the Practice of Unforgivables classes.

Back in the Weasleys' nomadic camp, young Ennel quickly learned the defensive spells to protect himself during Death Eater raids. Shield spells, fireballs, invisibility spells, apparation. These all came easily to the boy because he had the motivation to learn. He just had to look around himself at the devastation caused by the Dark Lord's followers. When he was nine, a new figure appeared in the camp. A old man, bent and twisted. Ennel soon learned that the old man knew secrets. Advanced spells he hadn't heard before. Maps of Slytherin's Pureblood School of Power, but the old man called it Hogwarts when distracted.

The two of them came up with plans, battle strategies, goals to reach. They sought the downfall of the Dark Lord, and poured their souls into the mission. Finally, as Ennel reached the age of eleven, they put their plans into motion.

Now bear with me. I feel that in all possible chains of events there are certain things that _will_ happen, no matter what. It may be as simple as being offered the friendship of Malfoy, or as complex as fighting for mastery of powerful items. The event will happen either way, the changes come in who is involved and why and sometimes when.

Ennel entered the School formerly known as Hogwarts as a student. Following the policies of the Death Eaters, he donned his grey robes and white mask, not to reveal his face again until he distinguished himself in the service of Voldemort. He went to class while masked, ate meals while masked, and even played games while masked. The only ones to see his face were his dorm mates and those who punished him for not learning quickly enough.

Sometime during his first year, Ennel heard rumours, followed clues, and eventually discovered a plan that the old man in the camp didn't know about. A magical artefact was being stored in the castle for an upcoming spell that Voldemort himself was performing at Slytherins. With the help of two of his dorm mates, Ennel managed to break through the Dark defences around the object and secured the item. Unfortunately, that was when Voldemort himself appeared to collect the item. In order to prevent the Dark Lord from using the item to increase his power, Ennel hid the item the only place he could think of... he lifted his mask and swallowed the unknown magic whole.

Seeing this, the Dark Lord attacked. Knowing that he couldn't use Avada Kedavra because it would destroy the artefact, Voldemort leapt forward to choke Ennel to death. For reasons unknown to anyone, Ennel's magic mixed with the artefact and disintegrated the dark forces attacking him. Ennel returned to his dorm, believing that Tom Riddle's control of the Wizarding world was broken.

It was mid-summer before he found out how wrong he was. The disembodied spirit of his enemy only remained free floating for mere hours before it claimed control of one of the high-ranking unmasked Death Eaters. Ennel returned to Slytherins for his second year, determined to finish the quest he had gotten distracted from the previous term.

Using spells cast in unusual ways Ennel searched the castle for the clues to the Dark objects the old man had told him about. Items known as Horcruxes that contained splinters of his enemy's soul, waiting patiently to be reunited when the original was destroyed, thus ensuring a long and evil rein over Britain.

Using skills that he believed came from swallowing the artefact in his first year, Ennel managed to track down the secret seat of Riddle's power, the Chamber of Secrets, hidden deep beneath the castle. Again, just as he felt he was finished with his mission, recovering the first of the Horcruxes, he fell into battle with the Dark. The basilisk was there, just as in our world, secreted there before Voldemort's choice split the worlds. After a fast and furious battle, Ennel managed to destroy the creature, and used it to destroy the Horcrux.

Managing to return unnoticed to his dorm, Ennel was able to relax for a few moments, secure in the thoughts that the first step in the destruction of Voldemort was completed.

When Ennel left the Weasley camp for the start of his third year at Slytherins he was warned of heightened Death Eater activity. He turned to his guide and left a message for his mentor to meet him at the end of the school year in a secure hideout they had created away from the camp. He wouldn't endanger the camp by returning again.

Boarding the school train Ennel settled back for the trip to Slytherins, keeping quiet in his own corner as usual, with his face hidden behind his mask. He found this made for easier spying on the group of students that crowded his carriage car. Halfway to the school, the train stopped in the middle of nowhere. After a short period of waiting, the carriage car opened and a shrouded being, close to eight feet tall, entered and started pawing the hoods off of the students. Ennel slid his own hood down before the creature could reach him, refusing to let the dark thing touch him. The creature finished its examinations and moved off to the next car.

When they reached the school the instructors explained that the Dementors were looking for an escapee from the Potions Master's ingredient stores and would continue roaming the grounds until she was found. They also commended the three students who faced the Dementors unafraid, and offered them special rewards for doing so. While two students stood, Ennel stayed seated, preferring not to attract his 'superiors' attention that closely.

Again, through the close attention to the rumours floating around and basic research similar to what I used to base this story on, Ennel managed to discover that the escapee was one Lily Potter, whose family was slaughtered the same night as his own. Through several unlikely events he managed to spot her prowling the grounds of the school, and eventually traced her to her hiding spot and had a brief and disturbing conversation with her.

It seems she was searching for the man who gave her family false information about Voldemort's plans, and intended to kill him if and when she found him. She also knew his true name, but not the one he used for day-to-day purposes. The last thing he heard from her before he let her leave was that her son also survived that fateful night, as he was never at home after Dumbledore gave them the warning. The Devil's Potions Master had 'killed' a muggle doll that had been enchanted to seem alive.

The following school year it was announced that The Devil's Potions Master would be holding a contest at the castle throughout the year. Every student's name would be entered into a magic vase, and the vase would select the ten most likely students to compete in the contest. Each of the contest's rounds would be scored on attitude, ability and accuracy, with the lowest scorer being used as either a target or bait in the next round.

Like me, Ennel found himself fighting for his life instead of saving the world.

In the first challenge he found himself facing an ill-tempered dragon to retrieve a golden egg. Rather than go through the lengthy process of showing the Potions Master his fighting skill, he instead used a spell he hadn't been officially taught yet. He simply used mobilicorpus to start feeding the dragon a few of the upperclassmen spectators. He then walked up to the egg and retrieved it. He received top scores for both attitude and ability, and one only slightly lower for accuracy. His flippant reply equalling 'Why kill the thing when you never know when you'll need it again?' boosted his accuracy back to top score.

His next challenge was to retrieve the hidden weapon from the depths of the lake. Again using skills he should not have had, Ennel walked fully clothed across the lake's surface, scanning the lakebed below him. Those on shore saw him cast a quick spell, and he sank to the bottom. He grabbed the item before him and then recast the levitation spell on his clothes, which sent him rocketing to the surface. This time his scores were all quite a bit lower until he explained his reasoning. He received top scores for correctly deducing Lily Potter as a weapon to be used against the Potions Master as proof of his failure to follow Voldemort's orders a decade earlier.

Again similar to my own tournament, Ennel's third round was a maze. Upon successfully completing the task he would receive a volume of Dark rites in the magical field he preferred. As Ennel had always been a Herbologist at heart, his natural affinity for plants made the maze the simplest for him. At least it would have been simple if he hadn't had to fend off the other survivors without giving himself away.

As he grabbed the magic vase at the centre of the maze, Ennel looked up at the mask of another person trying to grab the victory. Green eyes blazed back at him as Ennel lifted his foot and kicked the stand the vase was on, so the vase itself tipped into his hands. Green-Eyes lunged forward and grabbed the vase as he did. There was a flash and both boys felt themselves being portkeyed away.

Wherever they arrived, they sank to their knees as their stomachs settled. Almost immediately they were under attack, and they split up to double team the attacker. A short duel later and both boys were subdued by none other than the Devil's Potions Master. After a quick bragging session telling them that this is how he eliminates competition for his job, the evil man used Avada Kedavra on the unknown boy and turned to Ennel.

Removing Ennel's mask, he gloated over catching the one who had been sabotaging Voldemort's plans. Ennel used the man's distraction to use a summoning spell to drown the pair of them in water, and then grabbed the body of the unknown boy, followed by the portkey vase.

He stumbled out of the maze shouting that the Devil's Potion Master was a traitor to Voldemort who was killing the Dark Lord's servants.


	4. Chapter 4  Epilogue

Chapter Four - Epilogue

"Harry?"

The soft voice drew him out of his thoughts. As he lifted his face they could all see the tears in his eyes, even if he refused to let them fall.

"Harry?" came again, and this time he recognized the voice as Neville's.

"Sorry. I got caught up in the story, didn't I?"

He looked steadfastly across the room at Percy. Percy stared at the floor before him, the expression on his face unreadable to any who didn't know him well. Finally Percy lifted his eyes and Harry was shocked to see unshed tears in his eyes too.

"Percy? Do you see it yet Percy? Do you see why I refuse to stay away from your family?" Harry's voice was low, intense. "Do you see why I dread the day that you get your way and your family tells me to stay away from them?"

Harry took a deep breath. "I didn't grow up in a good family. I didn't know the difference then, but I do now. I need a family like yours to remind me that there are better things to look forward to than getting through a day without being punished, better things than making it through without a slapped face, a broken bone, or worse. Getting by and not fighting those who make the rules means putting up with Death Eaters in charge, accepting that I can be killed for not obeying the rules, that I have no protection from anybody doing anything they want to me."

Another deep breath. "And Percy, being around your family keeps me from becoming the Ennel in my story. My Ennel is ruthless to the point of throwing his classmates to the dragon in order to complete his mission. My Ennel is able to hand over a grieving mother and widow to the man who's held her captive for the last decade. I don't want to become that boy. I don't want to lose my reasons for helping others. I don't want to destroy Voldemort for the sake of destroying Voldemort. I want my reasons to be more personal than that."

Standing up, Harry continued, "I think that's all that needs to be said today. Fred, George, Charlie, Ron. You too, Ginny. Let Percy be for a while. He needs to consider this before making any decisions. Dad, if you could lower the wards for us, we're supposed to be shopping today."

Suffering through twin hugs from Hermione and Ginny, Harry stared over their shoulders at Neville. The other Gryffindor seemed to handle the day quite well, and seemed to be more intent on making sure Harry was okay.

As the girls finally released him, Harry turned to Neville for a quick hug. While he had Neville pulled tight, he whispered in his ear, "Remember your own initials, Nev."

Neville Longbottom stiffened in shock as Harry stood up straight and winked at him.

"Let's go shopping!" Harry said as they turned to face the door.


End file.
